Nutella

I think I'm getting married soon.

Which is crazy because I'm only just fifteen but I swear. My mum won't look at me without exploding into tears.

I know that we're poor, like hello, I'm not blind. But I never once thought that they would do this to me. I mean, I suspected a little when they made my older brother marry that slutty Fairy Lady - Marianna - but I never thought that they would make me, their youngest, actually marry someone for money.

Whatever happened to those dreams of love and passion and riding off in to the sunset with my prince charming?

It got shat on, that's what happened.

It isn't fair that I might have to marry someone I don't know so that my family can afford a decent meal. But I guess that I have no choice.

We have no gold, and we need to survive.

The only thing we do have, and have in abundance, is history and magic. But magic's no good when you're poor and have little else to your name.

Magic strewn bread can feed you for just so many years.

I wonder who my possible new arranged marriage husband will be though.

I hope he's at least my age, or a little older.

Maybe I should just do a spell to find out.



It turned out that I didn't need a spell after all.

Daddy caught me this morning when I was trying -ever so miserably - to sneak Toby up to my room. He was sitting in the kitchen when I crept in through the back. I didn't know he was there until he called me.

"You are not trying to get that cat upstairs again, Iliana."

I dropped the tabby and turned around.

If I didn't know he was Half Elven, I would have thought him ghost.

Ghosts don't really exist, by the way. At least not in our realm, they don't.

"I was just..." I tried explaining, but I knew he wouldn't listen.

Stupid Marianna's allergic to cats so I can't have Toby up in my room whenever they're over. Which they are at the moment. I have to keep him in his play pen outside until my brother and his wife leave.

I loved my brother, honestly, but I kind of loved my cat just a tad bit more.

He and his prissy wife needed to go, stat.

"You were just being yourself, I know I know." He had this look of defeat in his eyes; uncommon because my father's never one to feel down about something. He was a direct descendant of Sir. Jaron The Powerful, and a Knight of the Royal Ring.

He never took loss to heart.

"C'mere Iliana," he told me, waving his hand at me. I bit my lip and crossed my fingers behind my back.

Getting grounded for sneaking my cat in was the last thing I needed with the Solstice Ball coming up.

"There's something that we need to talk about."

For some strange reason, I knew that he wasn't talking about the cat any more.

I found the seat beside him and made myself comfortable. I knew from experience that Daddy wasn't one to rush into conversations he'd rather not have.

It was kind of awkward though. What if he started rattling off about sex?

I'd heard from Prentiss and Clayr that their fathers had had 'the talk' with them before they got married. The ordeal, they said, was enough to put them off of sex for a good twenty years.

I hoped he didn't though.

I didn't want to be put off sex for twenty years and I certainly didn't want to die a maid. And plus, we had enough of that in Life Style class in school.

God, I just realized something.

What if he brought up all those things a wife ought to do when she first marries?

Things like kissing, and touching and ... no. Please, no.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I readied myself for the virginifying speech that I was sure to come.

"Your mother and I ... well, she mostly ... ok, maybe me too ..." My father was stuttering.

He was actually stuttering.

We were going to have the Birds and the Bees talk and he was going to tell me how ugly the thing looked and I was going to die a virgin because every time I'd look into my Prince Charming's eyes, I'd think of the day my father ruined it all for me by talking to me about sex.

Lords of Beltha, I couldn't do this.

"I know!" I didn't mean to shout but in my rush to stop him, I did.

One eye opened and I peeked at the man sitting before me.

Daddy had turned pink. "What?"

"I know about sex. I mean, I learnt that in school and I know about the arranged marriage. I know what you and Mam have planned for me."

Suddenly, the prospect didn't seem so scary once I'd actually said it out loud.

I looked at the carpeted walls then. It was so much better then watching my father squirm in his seat.

"You d-? I mean, how do you know?"

Looking back up at him, I shrugged.

He stared at me for a few seconds before sighing.

"I suppose it was silly trying to hide it from you anyway." He said this so matter-of-factly it was annoying.

We sat there for some time, staring at everything but each other. My father and I were not the sharing sort but heaven knew we couldn't hide anything from one another.

Curiosity got the better of me, though. I should have let it go then but I couldn't. I had to know who I was going to marry. I mean, why wait till the wedding night when I could find out now, right?

"Well?" I shot my father a glance.

"Well what?" he asked, still a little embarrassed.

"Who is he? Who do you want me to marry?"

It was amazing, really, how calm I must have sounded when I said that.

"Iliana, you know the rules. Tradition..."

I rolled my eyes.

"Screw tradition, Daddy. If you don't tell me who I'm going to marry, I'm going to cast a Colour Spell and turn him blue. Don't think I won't."

He scratched the back of one ear.

I might not have been the best at school but I aced all my Alchemy AP classes. I could do a lot more than turn this mysterious fiance blue - however magical he may be.

"Fine." He was upset but he gave in easy.

I grinned at him.

"It's Amery Winter-Son."

And just like that the grin fell off.

Amery Winter-Son? The boy I took so much pleasure in tormenting back in grade school? The vampire's kid?

My face just sort of fell into my hands when the realization finally hit.

I was going to marry Amery Winter-Son of Gryfin House.

Shite.